Information about a present state of a machine may be indicated via a display. For example, a sensor senses the speed of a vehicle, and provides an indication of the speed via a display. The display may be in various portions of the vehicle, for example, the cockpit, dashboard, or a heads-up display (HUD).
Conventionally, the gauges have been statically provided. The gauges often include painted numbers indicating various speed demarcations, hash marks, a pointer device, and a stepper motor attached to the pointer device. The stepper motor is controlled via a unit that indicates the speed of the vehicle in real-time. Thus, the speed of the vehicle is translated to the gauge in real-time via the pointer pointing at the closest speed indication.
FIGS. 1(a)-(c) illustrate various examples of a speed gauge 100 according to a conventional implementation. The speed gauge 100 includes various speed demarcations 110, (FIGS. 1a and b) a pointer 120, and (FIG. 1a) stepper motor 130 attached to a speed controller/sensor 140. As explained above, the speed controller 140 detects or receives an indication of speed from a vehicle (not shown), or a vehicular computing network (also not shown). The controller 140 controls the stepper motor 130 to transition the pointer 120 to the corresponding speed demarcation 110. In the conventional speed gauge 100, the display remains static.
FIG. 1(b) shows a linear gauge 100 that may be digitally rendered, or also be presented in an analog fashion.
FIG. 1(c) shows a numeric representation in lieu of a gauge 100. Essentially, a digital representation of a numeric value may be presented to a driver or operator of a vehicle. In the digital display implementation, a specific speed is shown. Thus, a range is not provided visually to the driver or operator of the vehicle.